Running Total Collective Artist Debt

My debt is mostly from college, some outstanding warrants that have accrued funds over time and illness, which required me to get loans.

How does your economic reality effect your art?

My economic reality is not just my own, it's a part of local, national and global shifts. I approach the "reality" this way, it is my story and it is one that makes up so many stories of marginalized queer and trans people of color who come from generationally poor families. It affects it materially of course but I am also not interested in needing much money in order to "make work". At the same time, I am interested in the process and inner workings of capitalism and neocolonialism so I think of the "economic reality" as material.

Would your work look different if you weren't in debt?:

I think it would and wouldn't. It fluctuates because I believe I need to make the kind of work that I feel drawn to making. If I only made work to make money, I would not be satisfied. I come (I think) from a lineage of artists and people invested in political investment who value work as part of these practices together. The work is a part of my political inquiry and freedom or attempts to be free, which has little to no interest in being in part of a commercial art world. Of course, I need to make money and this gets harder over time as it does for everyone. Yet, I believe that we can only get more creative about how to survive.